Tea party and GOP should be ashamed

Shame on you, Republican Party. And how dare you claim to speak for the American people. You do not speak for the poor, the elderly, the sick, the unemployed and underemployed, the victims of gun violence and the undocumented immigrants who are helping to build this country (and saving many older cities that would be dying without them). And you do not speak for me.

To use the budget process as a back-door way to eliminate Obamacare is reprehensible. This law was passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president of the United States. And you, who claim to be champions of the U.S. Constitution, are willing to sacrifice this document, blackmail the people of this country, degrade the country's credit rating, increase unemployment and economic instability, and make this country the laughing stock of the world (or worse), to achieve — what? In your heart of hearts, are you trying to bring down President Barack Obama? Are you trying to destroy a health care plan that finally gives everyone the right to health care (which will benefit all of us in the long run). On the budget, you are not looking for Democratic compromises on spending (many of which have been given over the past two years), you are looking only for the destruction of Obamacare.

Of course, one of your perpetual smoke screens in defending your position is that "it is too costly." Please spare us. Where were all of you during the 2000-2008 George W. Bush years when the his administration signed a tax cut to the wealthy into law, even as we were going into a very expensive ($12 billion per month), protracted war based on untruths. Where were you as Wall Street was pushing arcane and financially risky mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps to banks, pension funds, and even countries overseas? Where were you during the real estate bubble when mortgage companies were misguiding people, approving loans and putting millions of people in houses they could not afford? And where were you as the deficit piled up at record rates during those years? Oh, and here is another thought: Suppose, at budget time during the Bush years, a segment of Congress decided to oppose any budget unless the tax reduction law was abolished and troops were pulled from Iraq. What would your position have been?

All of the above brought this country to its knees and created a world-wide economic crisis of instability and unemployment that plagues us to this day! All of the above has hurt all of us. And, please note, this world-wide disaster was caused by a handful of rich companies and rich people who wanted to get richer, not by the poor and elderly who you are so willing to sacrifice under the guise of fiscal reform.

For all of the above reasons, I am dumbfounded, puzzled, and disappointed in the defense of the GOP and tea party obstruction by The Sun's Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Peter Morici.